Roman Polanski’s Wife Calls Out Quentin Tarantino For Depicting Director In ‘Once Upon A Time In Hollywood’

By Brent Furdyk.
25 May 2019 3:05 PM

Emmanuelle Seigner, Roman Polanski - Anthony Harvey/REX/Shutterstock

Roman Polanski and slain wife Sharon Tate are portrayed in Quentin Tarantino’s new film “Once Upon a Time in Hollywood”, and the fugitive director’s current spouse is not happy about it.

In an Instagram post, French actress Emmanuelle Seigner — who wed the “Rosemary’s Baby” director in 1989 — called out Tarantino for exploiting her husband’s “tragic history” by casting Polish actor Rafał Zawierucha as Polanski and Margot Robbie as his then-wife Sharon Tate, who was pregnant with their child when she was murdered in August 1969 by members Charles Manson’s so-called “family.”

In her post, the 52-year-old Seigner expresses her dismay that her husband is being portrayed as a character in Tarantino’s film while being shunned by Hollywood after fleeing to France after pleading guilty to the statutory rape of a 13-year-old girl.

Insisting she isn’t criticizing the film, Seigner writes, “I’m just saying it does not bother them to make a movie about Roman and his tragic story, and so to do business with it, while on the other hand, they made it an outcast. And all without consulting him of course.”

Adding that she thinks “the movie is good, thankfully,” she admits that “the concept bothers me.”

While IndieWire points out that Polanski “does not play a huge role in Tarantino’s movie and barely has any lines of dialogue,” he and Tate are depicted in two scenes, one in which they’re driving in a car that pulls up to their home, another in which they attend a party.

During the Cannes Film Festival press conference for “Once Upon a Time in Hollywood”, Tarantino confirmed that he did not contact Polanski to tell him he would be portrayed in the film.